Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 June 2012
41 Deputy Dominic Hannigan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason a person (details supplied) cannot get an Irish passport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26879/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Passports Act, 2008 provides, among other things, that only Irish citizens are entitled to be issued with Irish passports. Each application received by the Passport Service must, therefore, demonstrate that person's entitlement to Irish citizenship before a passport can issue. The Passport Service must operate within the law on this as in all matters.
The Department received an application from the person in question last April. This application accompanied applications from her mother and an older sibling in respect of whom passports have since been issued. Her mother was entitled to citizenship on the basis that she became a naturalised Irish citizen on 1 April, 2012. In terms of the older sibling, she was born in the State in 2002. Under the terms of Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, as amended (the Act), this child was automatically an Irish citizen by virtue of her birth in the State.
It should be noted, at this stage, that the child's father also became a naturalised Irish citizen on 1 April, 2012 and has been issued with an Irish passport.
The position for the person in question is different, however. She was born in Dublin on 8 February, 2008. The Act was amended in 2004 to provide that a person, born in the State on or after 1 January 2005, where neither parent is an Irish or British citizen or otherwise entitled to reside in the State or Northern Ireland without restriction at the time of that person's birth, may claim citizenship by birth in the State (and thereby establish eligibility for an Irish passport) only where a parent has been lawfully resident in the State for three years of the four years preceding that his/her birth.
As neither parent was an Irish citizen in 2008, their residence in the four year period from 8 February, 2004 to 7 February, 2008, which immediately preceded their daughter's date of birth, had to be examined by the Department to determine her entitlement to Irish citizenship.
In line with guidelines provided by Department of Justice and Equality, which is the Department responsible for immigration and citizenship, the proofs of lawful residence, which are accepted and considered by this Department for passport applications, are immigration stamps in passports and/or the registration cards/books. These are issued to persons registering their lawful presence in the State with the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB). In addition, the Department will accept letters from GNIB that state the various permission details which have been issued to a person. All of these are official documents/permits, which can be objectively verified by the Department, if required.
GNIB have provided information to the Department that shows the parents have been registered in the State since 16 June, 2005. The amount of residence from this date to 7 February, 2008 is less than three years. As the statutory requirement has not been met, their daughter's entitlement to Irish citizenship has not been demonstrated. Accordingly, her application for a passport has been refused under the Passports Act, 2008 on the grounds that she is not an Irish citizen.
There was contact between the Department and the parents during the processing of their daughter's application. On 11 May last, the Department wrote to the parents to inform them of the decision to refuse their daughter a passport and to explain the background for it.
It remains open to the parents to pursue the matter of their daughter's entitlement to become a naturalised Irish citizen with the Department of Justice and Equality. In the event that she does acquire Irish citizenship by this or any other means, the Passport Service will be in a position to issue a passport on receipt of a new application.
